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Aglow Buttercup

#bcc437
Notes

Aglow Buttercup (#BCC437) is a true yellow with a warm character. It leans warm, pulling light toward red, orange, and yellow. Naturally inviting, it suits editorial and hospitality contexts. Its HSL profile (63°, 56%, 49%) places it in the balanced band at a mid lightness. It works across type, buttons, and borders, saturated enough to feel deliberate but balanced enough to not fight the rest of the palette. For a confident two-color system, pair it with its complementary blue. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.

HEX
#bcc437
RGB
rgb(188, 196, 55)
HSL
hsl(63, 56%, 49%)
HWB
hwb(63 22% 23%)
OKLCH
oklch(78.9% 0.157 112.7)
P3
color(display-p3 0.7430 0.7676 0.3196)
HSV
hsv(63, 72%, 77%)
LAB
lab(76.34% -19.72 65.55)
LCH
lch(76.34% 68.45 106.74)
CMYK
cmyk(4%, 0%, 72%, 23%)

Etymology

Aglow
adjective

Old English on-glōwan, on-glow — sharing root with glow and gleam. As a color modifier, aglow implies a saturated-and-lit-from-within quality, the bright color of fireplace-and-jack-o-lantern interior-glow-lit warm-light emission against ambient darkness. Sits at the bright-and-warm end of the grid, parallel to glowing and aflame in usage.

Buttercup
noun

Ranunculus acris and its meadow cousins — the small, glossy yellow flowers of European pastures whose petals reflect ultraviolet light to attract bees. The color refers to a buttercup petal in full sun: a saturated, slightly cool yellow with the polished finish of an epidermis that scatters light like wet paint. The folk test for whether you like butter — holding the flower under your chin to catch its yellow reflection — works on every variety.

Closest matches

The nearest named color in three reference sources, ranked by perceptual distance (ΔE76 in CIELAB). ΔE < 1 is imperceptible to most viewers; ΔE > 10 is clearly different. When two sources point to the same hex they’re merged into one tile; click any to open that color’s page.

Variations

Click any swatch to explore

Harmonies

Accessibility

Color-vision simulation

How this color appears to viewers with the four major color-vision-deficiency types. Computed via the Machado (2009) physiologically-based model. If a tile matches the original, the color reads the same to that viewer.

#bcc437
Original
#d3bb1c
Protanopia
#d3be42
Deuteranopia
#c9b8a9
Tritanopia
#b8b8b8
Achromatopsia
WCAG contrast

The color used as foreground text against pure white and pure black, with the contrast ratio and WCAG 2.1 grade. Aim for AA (4.5:1) for body text and AA Large (3:1) for 18 pt+ headlines; AAA (7:1) is the gold standard for long-form reading surfaces.

The quick brown foxSample body text at normal size. The wcag minimum for body contrast is 4.5:1 (AA) or 7:1 (AAA).
Failon White
1.89:1
The quick brown foxSample body text at normal size. The wcag minimum for body contrast is 4.5:1 (AA) or 7:1 (AAA).
AAAon Black
11.09:1

Wide gamut

Display P3 representation

The CSS Color 4 wide-gamut form of this color. Both swatches render the same color on every display — the P3 form only diverges from sRGB when a designer pushes channels outside sRGB's reach.

sRGB hex
sRGB hex
##BCC437
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.7430 0.7676 0.3196)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.157

Moderately saturated colors gain a small bump in P3 — the difference is usually visible side-by-side on wide-gamut hardware but won't change the character of the color.

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